“How close are we?” he asked, putting on the last touches of the new outfit.
“Not close enough, I’m afraid,” Katie said. “We’ve got some serious traffic issues.”
“Then find someplace discreet to park so I can get there under my own power,” Lucas ordered as he slid on his gauntlets.
Using her amazing memory of the Seraph street layout, and a GPS that would make NASA jealous, Katie found a side alley that would provide him with the cover he needed.
“This is good,” he said, peering through the one-way glass of the backseat into the deserted alleyway.
In full costume, he emerged from the car. He was just about to slip his cowl on when the driver’s-side window came down.
“Chinese and a movie tonight?” Katie asked.
“Sounds good,” he said.
She smiled at him then, and he felt the chill of excitement, matched only by the way he felt when wearing the costume.
“I’ll pick the movie this time,” he said, bending down to give her a quick kiss on the lips before pulling the mask over his face.
“Let me guess,” Katie said. “It’ll be something with a lot of action.”
“Am I that predictable?” he asked, feeling the awesome tingle of power flowing through his body as the suit’s neurosensors enhanced his strength.
Before she could answer, he leapt up into the air, his boot jets kicking in to propel him into the sky and over the city.
On the way to save the day.
* * *
“It’s the Shop-Quick on Madison.” Putnam’s voice filled him in.
“Got it,” Lucas said, landing in a trash-strewn alley behind the convenience store.
Clinging to the shadows, he found the rear door of the store and prepared to act. Putnam continued to feed him information through the communications system in his cowl.
“We’ve got four hostages and three gunmen inside, with the police out front. As of five minutes ago, they were still waiting for the hostage negotiator to arrive.”
Lucas approached the door, peering through the window into the back of the store.
“I’m going to move fast,” he said.
“You’re going in, then?” Putnam asked curiously.
“Yeah, this needs to end before the situation gets any worse.”
“So what’s your plan?”
“I’m going in under cover of darkness,” Lucas explained.
“EMP?” Putnam asked, referring to the electromagnetic pulse emitter built into the costume. Once it was activated, it would shut down all the power in the vicinity for at least an hour.
But Lucas needed only a few seconds.
“You read my mind,” he said, turning on the infrared lenses in his face mask while getting ready to set off the emitter.
“It’s showtime,” he said, depressing the button on his wrist.
The air shimmered briefly as the wave of electromagnetic force emanated from his body, and the entire neighborhood around him went black.
He tore the locked door from its hinges with ease and made his way toward the front of the convenience store.
Lucas had to work with surgical precision. He needed to strike hard and fast so that nobody would get hurt.
When he looked through the lenses of his mask, it was as bright as day, and he saw exactly what he needed to do.
The thieves were in a panic, screaming at the top of their lungs that they would hurt the hostages if anybody tried to take them.
Lucas wasn’t about to give them that chance.
He saw them right away—three men with guns, two with handguns and one with a shotgun. The four hostages were lying on the floor at their feet. The gunmen had their weapons pointed at their frightened captives as the leader screamed a warning to the police outside, blaming them for the sudden darkness.
It was scenes like this that made Lucas sick to his stomach, and that made him realize that what he did—the role he had chosen—was a complete necessity.
He grabbed one of the men by the back of the shirt, yanking him backward so he became airborne, sailing through the store to hit the wall just beside the doorway to the back room.
By the sound of the impact, Lucas didn’t figure he’d be much of a threat anytime soon.
The remaining two thugs barely had time to react.
Lucas darted in, ripping the pistol from one criminal’s hand. The man shrieked like a little girl, going quiet only after Lucas drove his fist solidly into his face, knocking him out cold.
The hostages desperately tried to run to safety, but their panic put their lives at risk.
The last of the criminals, a bald-headed man with a cobra tattooed on the side of his face, immediately raised his shotgun and prepared to fire into the escaping prisoners.
“No!” Lucas screamed, leaping into the air to place himself between the shotgun blast and the captives.
The gun belched fiery thunder, and multiple pellets peppered his chest and lower body.
“I got you!” the man shrieked as he pumped another round into his weapon and readied to fire once again.
Lucas had just about enough of this.
The costume he wore was bulletproof, but that didn’t mean the flesh beneath wasn’t bruised by the force of the gunfire.
Springing to his feet, he reached out, grabbed the gun, and tossed it across the store.
Lucas could see the sudden terror fill the man’s eyes as he emerged from the darkness to bear down on him. With his eyes glowing red from the infrared lenses in the mask and his sleek costume the color of darkness and blood, Lucas could just imagine what he looked like to the frightened man.
Cobra Face tried to run, but Lucas moved much too quickly, grabbing him by the front of his T-shirt and pulling him close.
Lucas almost started to laugh as he heard the man pathetically whimper.
“Who … what are you?” the man asked as Lucas leaned in closer to him.
This was the part he loved—letting them know who they were dealing with.
Raising one of his gloved hands, he showed the man the razor-sharp claws extending from his fingertips, hoping to scare the crap out of him.
“I’m the Red Talon,” Lucas said, savoring the way the name rolled off his tongue. “And Seraph City is under my protection.”
She’s mine now, this Angel City, Lucas thought.
And he would do everything in his power to show her.
To show her what it truly meant to be a hero.
THE END?
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 by Thomas E. Sniegoski
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
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eISBN: 978-0-375-89387-2
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